Desk pedestal locking structure



Feb. 21, 1950 T. A. HEARN 2,498,271

DESK PEDESTAL LOCKING STRUCTURE Filed Feb. 28, 1947 I N VEN TOR. 7110445 4 Haw/v.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Feb. 21, 1950 Thomas A. Hearn, Ludlow, Ky assignor to TheGlobe.-Wernicke-Co., Norwood, Ohio, a comic-- ration of Ohio ApplicationFebruary 28, 1947, Serial No. 731,675

8 Claims.

This invention. relates to a structure for looking the drawers in apedestal type desk when the center drawer is closed. It has beenconventional in. pedestal type desks to provide a lock on the centerdrawer and to provide means whereby the pedestal drawers are locked bythe act of closing the center drawer, so that a single lock wouldsufiice to lock the entire desk.

Numerous arrangements and structures have been provided for this purposein the past, and

it is an object of my present invention to prov vide a structure whichis simpler than an with which I am familiar. It is another object of myinvention to provide a structure of the class set forth, which isextremely inexpensive to construct and has a minimum ofinoving parts, sothat it is less likely to wear out or get out of order, than otherstructures now available.

These and other objects of my invention, which I shallpoint out in moredetail hereinafter, or which will be apparent to one skilled in the artupon reading these specifications, I accomplish by that certainconstruction and arrangement of parts of which I shall now describe anexemplary embodiment.

Reference is made to the drawings. forming a part hereof and in which:

Fig. l is a front elevation. of a desk to which my invention may beapplied.

Fig. 2 is a plan View of the same with a part of the. top removed. and.with the center drawer slightly withdrawn.

Fig. 3 is a. partial cross sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Fig.on enlarged scale.

Fig. 4 is a partial cross sectional view taken on the line 4-4 of Fig.3.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary plan view as seen from the line 5-5 of Fig. 3 ona still further enlarged scale. i

Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view on the same scale as Fig- 5- takenonthev line 6--5 OiFig. 3.

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the locking rod with its associatedpawls and spring.

Fig. 8 is a cross sectional view on an enlarged .scale taken. on theline 38 of Fig. 7.

Fig. 9' is a View similar to- Fig. 8, but showing a modifiedconstruction.

Fig. 10 is a perspective view of the spring memher.

The well known type of desk to which my invention may be applied has oneor two drawer containing pedestals. The pedestals generally have cornerframe members which are connected by thedrawerrunners on the inside andwhich are connected on the outside by a sheet of. metal forming an outerwall of the pedestal. According to. my invention I provide a rodvertically disposed along corner frame members. at the front of thepedestal and having a number'of pawls. Each of the drawers has anabutment positioned to be engaged by the respective pawls by thev pawls.when. the rod is rotated a slight amount axially... A. spring isprovided to normally urge: the rod to a. position where the pawls willclear the drawer abutments. The rod has a portion which extends beyond.the pedestal wall to a. position inwhich. it isahutted by the drawerfront of the center drawer just before it is com.- pletely closed, so.that the: final. closing move.- ment of the center drawer will rotatethe rod axially against the ,force of the. spring to the position inwhich the pawls willv be engaged by the drawer abutments to. lock thedrawers against withdrawaL InFig. .1 I, have. shown a well known type ofpedestal. desk having. the. pedestals indicated generally at H] and. IIand; having a top 1.2. The. desk may or may not have a skirt member [.3extending. across. the .knee hole, portion at the side opposite. that atwhich. the user sits. Each pedestal contains a number of drawersindicated generally at l4. and above the upper most drawer there may bethe usual writing shelf l5. In the knee hole portion therev is provideda center drawer indicated generally at it having. a front wallprojecting laterally, beyond the drawer, as indicated at H.

The pedestals. themselves comprise corner frame members indicatedgenerally at It! from which the drawer runners IS may be hung. In the.particular embodiment shown the runners themselves are provided withtongues 20 engaging in slots 21 in. the members l8,v but this particularconstruction forms no limitation. on my present invention. The. outerwall of the pedestal. is indicated at 22 and it is fastened by spotwelding or the like to the corner frame members l8. In the particularembodiment shown the outer wall ;22 has, the upper flange 23,. but thislikewise is not. a limitation upon my invention. The pedestal is alsoprovided with a bottom panel 24 and strengthening members 25, spotwelded thereto to. provide for stiffness.

The. locking device' itself comprises a rod '26. The rod. 26 ispositioned in the pedestal vertically adjacent the corner frame memberl8 and is retained against the member l8 and against the drawer runners19 by fingers 21 struck out from the member [8. These fingers arepreferably bent over. as at 28, so as to retain the rod 26' on twosides,while it. is retained by the member [8 and the runnersv [9 on: theother two sides.

In position the rod. rests on the panel 24 and is retained by three ofthe fingers 2,! in thepresent illustration. It will be clear, of course,more or less. fingers 21' could be provided if it was felt. to be"desirable.

. In each drawer space there is. provided on the when the rod is in oneposition and to be cleared Y rod 26 a pawl, indicated generally at 29The pawls' 2!] are fixed to the rod 26-, so that they will move with therod if it is rotated axially. In Figs. 8 and 9 I have shown two ways inwhich the pawls may be attached to the rod 26. The preferred structureis shown in Fig. 8 where a strip of sheet metal is bent upon itself andspot welded as indicated at 39 to provide a loop portion 3| of a size toaccommodate the rod 26. A portion of the loop 3] is flat as indicated at32 and has a threaded hole to accommodate the set screw 33. The setscrew 33 has a relatively sharp point, so that when it is tightened bymeans of a screw driver it bites into the metal of the rod 26, asclearly shown in Fig. 8.

According to the structure of Fig. 9 the pawl is simply clamped to therod 26 by means of a screw 34 passing through a hole in the longer armof the pawl and threaded into a hole in the shorter arm 35. The shorterarm 35 is bent at 36 and it will be clear that tightening the screwtightly around the rod 26.

Each of the drawers is provided with an abutment on its side which canbe engaged by the respective pawls, and such an abutment is clearlyshown at 31 in Fig. 6. As shown there it may be a strip of sheet metalbent to the form shown and spot welded to the drawer side 38. It will beclear, of course, that any desired construction can be used and that itis only important that an abutment be provided which can engage a pawl29 when rocked to its counterclockwise limit, as seen in Figs. and 6.The rod 26 adjacent its upper end is provided with an offset 39 andterminates in a hook portion 40. A spring 4!, shown in perspective inFig. 10, is disposed with its end Ma engaged about the rod 26 above theoifset portion 39 and with its other end Mb engaged in a hole in theshelf support 23. It will be clear from a consideration of the figuresthat this spring will tend to rock the rod 26 axially in a clockwisedirection bringing the pawls 29 to the position shown in solid lines inFigs. 5 and 6, so that they will clear the abutments 31.

The hook portion 49 passes over the top of the outer wall 22 to aposition where it can be engaged by the drawer front I! as it is closed.As shown in Fig. 5, if the wall 22 is provided with the top flange 23,this flange must be cut away as shown at 2311 to permit passage of themember 40. It will also be noted that the hook portion 40 is disposed ata slight angle in relation to the offset portion 39, so as to givebetter leverage.

From a consideration of Fig. 5, it will be clear that as the centerdrawer I6 is closed the portion ll thereof will abut the member 49 justbefore the drawer is completely closed and with final closing movementof the. center drawer, the rod 25 will be rocked axially in acounterclockwise direction against the force of the spring 4|, so as tobring the pawls 29 to the position shown in broken lines in Fig. 6. Withthe pawls in this position the pedestal drawers cannot be opened. Assoon as the center drawer is withdrawn a suiiicient amount to permit theportion 40 to return to the position of Fig. 5 under the influence ofthe spring 4 I, the pawls 29 are returned to their solid line positionsand the pedestal drawers may be pulled out.

;- claims which follow.-

- Having now fully describedmy invention, what I claim as new and desireto secure by Letters Pa e t 5? ,34 will cause the loop portion 31a to beclamped 1. In combination with a'desk having a drawer pedestal and acenter drawer disposed adjacent thereto, said pedestal having cornerframe members; drawer runners extending between said corner framemembers on the inside thereof, and

an outer wall extending between said corner frame members on the outsidethereof, a locking device for the drawers in said pedestal comprising arod vertically disposed between said drawer .runners and said outerwall, a number of pawls carried by said rod and disposed opposite therespective drawers, an abutment on each of said drawers engageable bysaid pawls when said rod is rocked axially in one direction and clearedby said pawls when said rod is rocked axially in the other direction,spring means urging said rod axially in said other direction, said rodhaving an offset therein adjacent the upper end thereof, and having aportion extending outside said outer wall in a position to be abutted bythe center drawer front just before it is completely closed, whereby inthe final closing movement of said center drawer said rod is rockedaxially against the force of said spring in said first direction,locking the drawers in said pedestal against withdrawal.

2. The structure of claim 1, in which said pedestal has a bottom panel,and in which said rod rests on said bottom panel.

3. The structure of claim 2, in which a number of fingers are struck outfrom a corner frame member, said rod being disposed against said cornerframe member and being retained on one side by said corner frame member,on an adjacent side by said drawer runners, and on another side by saidfingers.

4. The structure of claim 3, in which said fingers are bent to retainsaid rod on the sides opposite said corner frame member and said drawerrunners.

5. The structure of claim 4, in which said spring means is a tensionspring secured at one end to the offset portion of said rod, and at theother end to said corner frame member.

6. The structure of claim 5, in which the upper end of said rod isprovided with a hook portion which extends over the top of said outerwall and into the path of said drawer front.

'7. The structure of claim 1, in which each of said pawls comprises astrip of metal banded about said rod and spot welded together, and a setscrew passing through said strip and biting into said rod.

8. The structure of claim 1, in which each of said pawls comprises astrip of metal bent upon itself and spot welded together to form a loopof a size to accommodate said rod, said loop having a flat portionhaving a threaded hole, a pointed set screw in said threaded hole, saidset screw biting into said rod to hold said pawl against rotationrelative to said rod.

THOMAS A. HEARN.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,695,896 Holden Dec. 18, 19281,744,645 Kurten Jan. 21, 1930 1,744,646 Kurten Jan. 21, 1930 1,928,265Rand Sept. 26, 1933 2,180,639 Hearn Nov. 21, 1939

